Painting of the month || Tabloul lunii

Adolf Hirémy-Hirschl (Timișoara, 1860– Rome, 1933) was a Hungarian artistknown for historical and mythological painting, particularly of subjects pertaining to ancient Rome. Some of his major history paintings have been lost, and many of his smaller works were retained by his heirs until the early 1980s. Although he was one of the most successful artists of fin-de-siècle Vienna, these circumstances, along with the rise of Gustav Klimt and the Vienna Secessionists, put his reputation in eclipse. (source Wikipedia)

I decided to make another post about a lesser known artist, and the more I come across such examples the more I wonder how many other astounding works are unjustly ignored or lost. The painting that brought Hiremy to my attention was the beauty which you can see above.

Isn’t this one of the most chilling, mystical and gut-punching fantastical paintings you have ever seen? I can literally feel the atmosphere, the cold and the sadness of the place every time I look at it! And the light and the pain of the old man… *tears of awe*

“Ahasuerus at the end of the world” depicts the legend of The Wandering Jew, a tale commonly spread throughout Europe during the 13th century and found in the literature and folklore of many countries: the USA and Latin American countries, Germany, Sweden, Russia, Romania, UK, France, the Netherlands and Uzbekistan.

The legend says that The Wandering Jew was one of the Jews who mocked and hit Christ on His way to Crucifixion on Golgota. He was cursed to never die and walk the earth until Christ’s Second Coming. In Heremy’s painting he is depicted as blind old man, suffering and barely carrying his feet, “the last man in the polar wilderness, caught between the angel of hope and the specter of death. Before him lies a fallen female figure, the personification of dead humanity, as crows circle ominously“. (From Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter by James Gurney)

Although I was not familiar with this legend before coming across Heremy’s painting, from a Christian point of view, I can definitely see deep meaning and symbolism in it. The name of the Jew and his occupation vary from country to country but they are not important. Ahasuerus is not an individual, as one might argue that there were dozens of other Jews who also taunted Christ, but he is a symbol, a symbol not only of the disbelief of one particular people, but of the entire world. Here he is, given an eternal life, the disbeliever sees with his own eyes the rise and fall of empires, the birth and death of glorious men, wars, peace, joy and sorrow, and in its entirety the transiency of the world – the dead body of the young woman at his feet. All is perishable and all ends with Death, but Life and Truth can be found, and those who choose it will not face Death at the End of the World but Life Eternal.
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